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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26668759">daylight gardening</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue'>greywardenblue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Daye Works [36]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>August &amp; Raysel are roommates, Gen, some Killing Frost spoilers, some of the teens make a cameo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:29:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,282</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26668759</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rayseline wakes August in the middle of the day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>August Torquill &amp; Rayseline Torquill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Daye Works [36]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2249427</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>daylight gardening</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“August… August!”</p><p>August pushed the hands shaking her away automatically, then finally opened her eyes and squinted up at Raysel. “<em>What? </em>”</p><p>It was dark in the room, but August knew that was only due to the thick curtains. It must have been the middle of the day - their equivalent of night. And Raysel looked freaked out.</p><p>“Toby is going to <em> kill me</em>,” Raysel whispered.</p><p>August sighed. “Did you let another wild fox inside?”</p><p>“August, this isn’t funny! I think I broke the rose goblin!”</p><p>August dragged a hand over her face. “What do you mean, you <em> broke </em> the rose goblin?”</p><p>“It kept following me around, and it was really annoying, and I wanted to kick it, but I didn’t kick it because Toby would be mad, but it kept following me, so I told it to go fuck itself, and then it just did this--” Rayseline made some hand gestures that gave August no information about what happened to Spike. She knew Raysel wouldn’t let her go back to sleep, so she climbed out of bed almost on autopilot. </p><p>The two of them sneaked to the door and listened, then sneaked out into the hallway as quietly as they could. Jazz was at work, but everyone else would be soundly asleep, and they wanted to keep it that way. They were halfway down the stairs when August stopped.</p><p>“Wait. What the hell do you expect me to do about the goblin?”</p><p>Raysel crossed her arms. “Who else was I supposed to wake up?”</p><p>“... May? Or, you know, Toby. It’s not like she is actually going to kill you.”</p><p>Raysel glared. “She told me when I moved in that if I laid a hand on the cats or Spike, she would murder me. She said that. With words.”</p><p>August sighed and kept walking down the stairs. “She says a lot of nonsense.”</p><p>They were almost to the backyard door when a portal opened and Gillian rushed through.</p><p>“It’ll only be a minute,” she said, then stopped in her tracks when she noticed August and Rayseline. “... What are you two sneaking around for?”</p><p>“Nothing,” they said at the same time, which, in hindsight, was a little suspicious. Gillian stared at them. Chelsea, who looked like she was half-asleep, waved at them from the other side of the portal, but August wasn’t entirely certain she wasn’t sleepwalking.</p><p>Dean, who followed Gillian inside, looked more awake. “Are you two still hogging my room?” he asked, while Gillian apparently decided they weren’t worth the time and went off to find whatever she left here.</p><p>“Uh, excuse me? It is <em> our </em> room now,” August said. “And before that it was a guest room, so it was never yours.”</p><p>Dean shrugged, but there was a small smile on his lips. “Whatever you say, step-sis.”</p><p>“Oh, right,” Rayseline said, and August didn’t miss how Dean flinched and turned away at her voice. “You guys are <em> siblings </em> now.”</p><p>“We are <em> not</em>,” August said.</p><p>“I’ve got it!” Gillian appeared with a flashdrive in her hand. “Oh, and for the record: your parents are married, so by human rules, you’re totally step-siblings.”</p><p>“Faerie doesn’t do step-families,” August said.</p><p>“I don’t know about that,” Dean murmured, “Your father acts like he’s my second dad, and I’m hardly even home.”</p><p>August didn’t say anything, mostly because her first thought was that up until she was twelve or so, she was convinced Patrick was her second dad. Thankfully, the first time she mentioned that was when they were alone with Simon, and he frantically made sure she would never say it in front of Amandine.</p><p>“Good luck with whatever you weren’t doing,” Gillian said, and then pulled Dean through the portal behind her, and in a second, they were all gone.</p><p>“Where’s the goblin?” August asked after a pause. Raysel lead them both outside, where they witnessed the scene of the crime.</p><p>Spike always had a sort of rosebush-look about it, but it always looked like, well, a cat at the same time. What Rayseline stopped in front of was… a rosebush. An unmoving rosebush, with no particular shape about it. The two of them stopped in front of it and stared helplessly.</p><p>“Have you tried telling it to unfuck itself?” August asked.</p><p>Raysel rolled her eyes. “Oh goblin, please, kindly unfuck yourself!” she said sarcastically.</p><p>Nothing happened.</p><p>“I think you need to do it with more feeling,” August said.</p><p>“You think I haven’t tried that? Toby is going to kill me--”</p><p>“She’s not going to kill you.”</p><p>“But she’s going to lecture me, and be all disappointed and sad! I was supposed to be doing better, but I break everything!” Rayseline hissed, still trying to keep her voice down even as anger and desperation shook her body.</p><p>“What am I supposed to say, then?” August hissed back. “I came back after a hundred years, and half the people I meet hate me for what my father did, and the other half hate me for what my mother did! Toby’s boyfriend looks like he just chewed on a lemon when he looks at me, because I look like her! It’s a miracle she lets me stay here!”</p><p>“That’s different,” Raysel murmured. “That’s not anything <em> you </em> did. Even if they can’t help being mad at you, they know they’re not <em> supposed </em> to be.”</p><p>August sighed again and looked down at the rosebush. “Look, I was serious about doing it with more feeling. It’s your mom’s, right? Maybe you told it to fuck off, and it listened to you.”</p><p>Raysel eyed the bush uneasily. “I think it belongs to Toby, now.” But she didn’t say for sure that August was wrong. After a while, she took a deep breath and knelt down next to the bush. “Spike,” she said. “I’m sorry for what I said. Please, come back.”</p><p>August thought that almost sounded convincing, but the bush didn’t move.</p><p>“Spike,” Rayseline said, a bit more desperately. “<em> Please </em>come back before Toby wakes up and notices I broke you and sends me back home.” A pause. “Please come back before Toby sends me back home. Please, please, please come back.”</p><p>By the end of it, August was kneeling in the grass too, staring at the rose bush for any sign of movement. Then, with a sigh, the bush moved and rearranged until it was cat-shaped again. Rayseline let out a breath and leant against August’s side. </p><p>“That was close,” August murmured as Spike shook itself, then immediately tried to cuddle them.</p><p>“Careful, hey! You still have thorns!” Rayseline hissed at the creature, but there wasn’t much force behind it.</p><p>“A touching scene,” a voice behind them said, and they got up from the ground quickly to turn and face Tybalt. The man was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame - he was thankfully wearing both a shirt and a pair of boxers, although it was clear that he was dressed for sleeping. August thought she saw stripes on his skin, but then she blinked and they were gone.</p><p>August couldn’t help the thought that he was effortlessly handsome. There was no romantic feeling behind the thought - Toby would have <em> really </em>murdered her for that one -, more of a realization that her mother was wrong about an infinite number of things.</p><p>“We’re not doing anything,” Raysel said a little too quickly. The two of them stood close together to cover Spike, but the rose goblin walked around their feet and strutted up to Tybalt.</p><p>“Of course not,” he said slowly, then he turned and walked back into the house. “I didn’t see anything,” he called behind him.</p><p>“<em>That </em> was close,” Raysel whispered.</p><p>August groaned. “I’m going <em> back to sleep</em>.”</p>
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